Deputy Boyd Barrett raised this issue at the Business Committee. It would be good if we had statements next week on safe staffing issues in Irish hospitals. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has said the situation is not conducive to staff safety and patient safety. It would be in the public interest to have statements on that issue next week.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, will ballot its members on industrial action very soon. It is doing this in pursuance of safe staffing. It has repeatedly asked the Government to intervene to take pressure off the health system and its staff. Nurses in this environment have stated that it is very unsafe. Will the Government intervene, uphold and listen to the nurses’ union that this is not conducive to their staff or patients?

Before Christmas, I raised with the Tánaiste and the Government the issue of establishing a special committee on assisted dying. That was three months ago. The Government stated the committee would be established either before or after Christmas. Three months later the Government has not nominated any of its five members. There is a ridiculous situation where the chairperson of the committee, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, and I mean no disrespect to him, has emailed all the Whips asking when the committee will be estab…

That is a terrible answer.

It shows complete disrespect for the idea. The Tánaiste did not even stand up.

The Tánaiste did not stand up.

It is important-----

-----to have a better reply than that. It is important to-----

In an emergency we need emergency measures. I do not think anybody is disputing that we are in a deep crisis with housing. The State must do everything in its power to stop people going into homelessness. As we have stated many times, more than 10,000 people are in this situation. The housing crisis is now in its second decade. Fine Gael has been in power for 12 years today. It is no coincidence that it has been part of the political landscape of the ongoing crisis. Lifting the eviction ban, whether in April or Jun…

A report by the trade union Mandate showed that two thirds of retail workers are earning less than €400 per week. It also clearly showed that companies are actively choosing to bypass offering hours to existing staff to keep the employer's costs down. The union has called for legislative change to the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018. Will the Government review the Act and change the legislation to stop this practice?

Obviously, I welcome the establishment of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use. It is a very important debate and probably the most important of this generation where drug use is concerned. Why it took three years in the lifetime of this Government beggars belief and why it has taken decades to come to this level of discussion also beggars belief. We have seen other models across the world where drug use and addiction are treated more holistically and with more empathy. By locking people up - and the majority of peo…

Will the Minister indicate his support for a public inquiry in relation to the death of Shane O'Farrell, which happened in August 2011? He was killed in a hit-and-run incident. Many of us would argue that death was completely unlawful and it could have been prevented. I would like to hear the Minister's opinion concerning the call from Shane's family and many of his supporters for a public inquiry into his death.

I thank the Minister. Many of us have spoken about Shane O'Farrell, who was killed 12 years ago. He should be alive today, if it was not for the systemic failure of our judicial system regarding what happened on that day. Shane and his family continue to be failed concerning that fatal day. The injustice lingers. Not only does grief linger but also injustice in the context of that family calling for a public inquiry into Shane's death. The more I look back over and observe the last few years in respect of how the r…

When will that report be brought to Cabinet? That is very important. Equally, how will it proceed after that? In 2019, both Houses passed a motion calling for a public inquiry. Before I came in, I looked at the definition of a "public inquiry". There are four main points of a public inquiry: to establish the facts, to learn lessons, to restore public confidence and to determine accountability. Surely all these elements are relevant regarding the failures concerning what happened to Shane O'Farrell on that day. I ap…

Adult education tutors will organise a protest outside Leinster House today at 1 o'clock to demand improved terms and conditions for their job. They state they are not treated properly compared with other public servants. They have a number of issues around pay parity and the public services contract. This is a protracted set of circumstances. Last September, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform put forward a proposal in regard to their situation. The workers want to k…

In today's edition of The Irish Times , new data suggests that almost 1,300 people died over the winter due to delays in hospital admissions from accident and emergency departments. That is 174 higher than the previous winter. To put this into context, this exceeds the 155 people who unfortunately died in road traffic accidents in Ireland last year. The report states, "...questions needed to be answered as to why patients were having to wait longer despite the addition of 132 beds last year" to the health service. …

I put it to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that while the Government has put in place welcome measures to mitigate the cost of living, they do not in any way go far enough. We can see this with energy costs and the cost of food and so on. This crisis impacts the least well-off in society who are on low incomes and fixed payments. When people must resort to food banks we have a huge problem. In any society, especially Ireland which is a very wealthy country, to have people resorting to food banks is a complete and …

I want to set out that this is no doubt quite a complicated issue, spans four or five decades and is somewhat opaque as to the interpretation of the care that should be given to our citizens. In this case we are talking about long-stay nursing home care. The central tenet to the critique the Attorney General has set out, and I and others would argue this point, is that those who had an obligation to receive care were subjected to an imposition of charges with regard to that care. That is, as I say, open to interpre…

One of the Tánaiste's last engagements as Taoiseach was on 15 December in relation to the EU Council. Can he report back to the House on his engagement with his counterparts in relation to the common European defence?

I am glad the Tánaiste touched on the issue around EU battle groups. Does he not think that Ireland's participation in these groups undermines Ireland's neutrality? That is a very straight question.